School
by KTEW
Summary: ABL-related: Ever wonder how our motley crew met? Featuring Bee, 'Shot, Jet, Pipsqueak, The Duke, Honey, Cinnamon, Granyt, and Jewels.


I stepped out of the social worker's car and gulped. It was _huge_. Seven buildings. One for each nation, one for each school level.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up. Longshot was looking at me, kinda concerned. (You okay?)

I nodded. "It's gotta be better than the orphanage, right?" I said.

He nodded.

I took a deep breath and went to go help the social worker bring our stuff up.

A hour later, I was sitting in my dorm, all my stuff in two suitcases next to my bed, just thinking. Thankfully there'd been an empty room. I didn't like being force-introduced to people.

I heard a knock.

I got up and opened the door. Longshot was standing in the hall, questioning.

"What?" I asked.

(And you've been holed up in your room for the past half hour because…)

I shrugged. "What else am I supposed to do?"

He rolled his eyes. (C'mon.) He took my hand and started pulling me.

"Wait!"

He turned, uncharacteristically impatient.

"At least let me lock my door first." I walked over, locked it, walked back, and held out my hand.

He hesitated, then took my wrist and started dragging me along.

A minute later, we were in the courtyard with three boys. One looked around Longshot's age, was pretty tan. and had scruffy hair and what looked like a twig in his mouth. One looked like he was at least sixteen, he was at least 6'0" and built like a fridge, with long-ish brown hair, small eyes and paler skin, but something about him made him seem younger, maybe Longshot's age, too. The last one looked a few years younger than me, and had black hair, eyes the size of his fist, about the same coloring as the giant, and a ball cap that was obviously too big for him and kept falling over his eyes.

"Who're they?" I asked Longshot, confused.

(This is my roommate,) he "said", gesturing to the one with the twig, (and these are some of his friends.)

He seemed to understand him well enough, 'cause he said, "I'm Jet." He gestured to the giant. "This is Pipsqueak," I tried not to laugh and he gestured to the younger one, "and The Duke."

"Smellerbee," I said.

Jet nodded. Then he seemed to realize something and looked around. "Where are they?" he muttered.

Four girls came up behind him. One looked around The Duke's age and was blonde with a scar over her right eye. She had a sweet and innocent but confused look on her face. One girl seemed to hover over her, like she was trying to protect her. She looked a couple years younger than me, had almost red hair and a burn on the left side of her neck, and looked almost defensive. The other two looked around my age. One had light-ish brown hair in pigtails, glasses, and a chain around her neck with a rock on it. The other had a more normal figure, contrasting the other scrawny-to-fridge bodies, and also had the darkest skin, with almost black hair, bangs swept off to the side, dark eyes, and a tiny, expensive-looking bracelet on a chain around her neck.

"There you are!" Jet said.

The darker girl shrugged. "Here we are."

He rolled his eyes. "Smellerbee, Longshot, this is Honey," he gestured to the blonde, "Cinnamon," he gestured to the redhead, "Granyt," he pointed at Pigtails, "and Jewels." He pointed to the darker girl.

Longshot nodded, I said, "Hey."

"So, you're new?" Cinnamon asked, relaxing a bit.

We nodded.

"Most of the others will come in a few days," Granyt said. "Only new kids come this early."

I raised an eyebrow. "What about you?"

She shrugged. "We don't leave. We don't have anywhere else to go."

That was Longshot and I were supposed to do. Stay there over breaks, seeing as the orphanage was a good 500 miles away.

"Neither do we," I whispered.

I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned around and saw a girl around my age walking by, about fifty feet away from us.

"Let me restate that," I heard Granyt say behind me. "Only new kids _and Toph_ come this early."

"Yo, Toph!" Jet yelled.

The girl turned towards us. She had raven black hair up in a ponytail, porcelain skin, and huge, misted over, green eyes. She was kinda short, but she looked around my age. She started walking over. "Hey, Twig," she said to Jet. Giant," to Pipsqueak. "Short Stuff." That was to The Duke, who pouted. "Girls."

She turned towards us. Not like she just noticed us, like she was just saving us for last. "And you are?"

"Smellerbee," I said. "This is Longshot."

She nodded. "Toph Bei Fong."

"So, why are you here so early?" I asked.

She cocked an eyebrow. "So Rocky already told you 'bout that?"

I stared a moment. "Rocky?"

She pointed at Granyt, who shrugged. "She gives everyone a nickname. Even us." She chuckled a little.

Toph shrugged, sighed a little, and said, "It's my parents. They're super over protective, just because I'm blind."

My eyes widened a bit. "You're _blind_?"

She shrugged again. "Well, yeah. But I can see just fine. I _see_ through earthbending. I can feel the vibrations well enough to know where everything is. Only thing is I always hear people talking about "color". I have no idea what that is."

"Huh," I muttered.

"Toph!" someone yelled. I turned and saw a boy around my age, with even less luggage than me, waving to her.

"Be right there!" Toph yelled. She turned back to us. "See you around–well, you know what I mean."

I nodded. "See you."

She walked away. The boy'd been walking toward us, and I got a better look at him. He was a little taller than Toph, bald and with gray eyes. Airbender eyes. Not something you saw very often anymore.

They walked away together.

"Well, Aang's here," Granyt said. "But then, he's usually here early, too. Mostly for Toph."

"So they're together?" I asked.

The Duke, Honey, Cinnamon, and Jewels giggled. Jet and Pipsqueak started full out laughing. Granyt smiled.

"Oh, no," she said. "He has this huge crush on their friend, Katara. And Toph just doesn't seem interested. In anyone."

Jet and Pipsqueak looked at each other. I got the feeling I was missing something.

"_And_," Jewels said, like Granyt had forgotten something important, "Aang's the Avatar."

My eyebrows shot up. "_The Avatar_?"

She nodded. "He's working on airbending. It's his first, and he's _almost_ mastered it. There've been a couple… _incidents_, where he got emotional and went into the Avatar State–You know what that is?"

I nodded, slightly stunned.

"And he… oh, destroyed half the school. You'll note the air and water buildings look newer than the others."

"_Why_?" I asked.

She thought a moment. "I think Zuko tied Katara to a tree."

"Who's Zuko?"

She waved it away. "No one important, really. Well, to us. He's one of the popular kids. Jet hates him 'cause he's from the Fire Nation." The last part sounded mocking.

"You, of all people, should know why!" Jet yelled.

She made a 'calm down' gesture. "I do, but I don't hold it against everyone."

They must've seen how unbelievably confused I was, because she said, "The Fire Nation killed his parents. And mine."

My eyes widened. I turned to Jet. "Do you know who did it?"

He nodded, then scowled. "They didn't have enough evidence to arrest them."

I turned to Jewels. "What about you?"

She shook her head. "One day I was out practicing my bending, when I got back the entire area was burned down."

I looked at Pipsqueak. He looked away. I turned to The Duke.

"I never had a home," he whispered.

I looked over at Granyt. "One of the gangs wrecked my neighborhood. And killed my parents." She fingered her necklace.

I looked at the other two. Honey looked up at Cinnamon, who said, "We don't remember anything before a year ago. We woke up on the side of the road with no memory of anything."

Longshot and I looked at each other. We really _weren't_ alone.

"So, you're Earth Kingdom, right?" Granyt said like she was trying to change the subject.

We nodded.

"Want us to show you around?" Jet offered.

I smiled a bit. "Sure."

"Okay," he said, straightening his pointless jacket and posture so he vaguely resembled a marine, "follow me, newbies." He started walking off.

Longshot and I glanced at each other, rolled our eyes, and followed him.

Who knows, maybe this _could_ be fun.


End file.
